3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 30
Summary
Judge Jeannette A. Vargas permanently ordered the Trump administration to abandon its suspension of funding for the Gateway rail tunnel under the Hudson River, calling the effort “flagrantly” illegal.
September’s reimbursement halt violated federal guidelines, Vargas said, rejecting the administration’s claim that payments were paused for a hiring-practices review.
The funding freeze shut down construction, triggered a brief layoff of about 1,000 workers in New York and New Jersey in February, and left the project out of money roughly five months after payments stopped.
Trump’s own October remarks that he was “cutting” the project because Schumer backed it helped support the finding that political motives drove the suspension.
Gateway would add capacity to two 116-year-old single-track tunnels linking Manhattan and New Jersey, a route long framed by New York leaders as a critical U.S. infrastructure bottleneck.